Study title

Access to Treatment and Waiting Times in Primary Oral Health Care: South-Western Finns 2021

Dataset ID Number

FSD4001

Persistent identifiers

https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD4001
https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd4001

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Söderlund, Riitta (University of Turku)

Abstract

The data is part of a set of surveys aimed at determining waiting times for access to public primary oral health care. The surveys were collected from citizens, dental nurses, and oral health care managers. This material covers the citizen survey. The respondents are from Southwest Finland.

First, respondents were asked to rank the criteria for choosing a dentist for non-urgent care and were asked whether the quickness of access to non-urgent care was important to them when choosing a dentist. They were then asked where they obtained information for choosing a dentist. In addition, respondents were asked whether they generally preferred to visit the same dentist or whether they would visit any dentist if they could get an appointment quickly.

Next, respondents were asked how regularly they visit a dentist and whether they visit a health center or a private clinic. After this, respondents were asked about their views on the assessment of their need for treatment, e.g., whether they exaggerate their symptoms to receive treatment more quickly. In addition, questions and statements were presented regarding waiting times for treatment, such as how long they had waited for non-urgent treatment. Also, statements were presented regarding waiting times published on the internet.

Background variables include the municipality of residence, year of birth, gender, educational background, perceived oral health, and personal oral care habits.

Keywords

dental care; dental health; dentists; health services; medical centres; oral health; patients; teeth

Topic Classification

• Medical and health sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Health care services and policies (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Individual datasets

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Data Collector

• Söderlund, Riitta (University of Turku)

Time Period Covered

2021

Collection Dates

2021-05-02 – 2021-06-11

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Persons over the age of 18 living in Southwest Finland

Time Method

Cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Non-probability: Availability

The survey was advertised on the websites of all municipalities/health centers in Southwest Finland. These websites contained a link to the website with the survey.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: Finnish.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Data Version

1.0

Related Datasets

FSD4002 Access to Treatment and Waiting Times in Primary Oral Health Care: Dental Nurses 2021

FSD4003 Access to Treatment and Waiting Times in Primary Oral Health Care: Managers 2021

Weighting

There are no weight variables in the data.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Söderlund, Riitta (University of Turku): Access to Treatment and Waiting Times in Primary Oral Health Care: South-Western Finns 2021 [dataset]. Data version 1.0 (2025-10-01). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd4001; URN: https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD4001

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Related Publications

Söderlund, Riitta (2023). Signalling waiting times to citizens on public oral healthcare providers' websites. Acta Odontologica Scandinavica, 81(7): 517-527. https://doi.org/10.1080/00016357.2023.2204934

Söderlund, Riitta (2025). Actionability of public waiting time reporting - exploratory research in Finland's public primary oral healthcare. Turun yliopisto, väitöskirja. https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-02-0243-9